The House That Was Haunted
by pinchfield
Summary: Mai is going out with a friend at Halloween. She expected a quiet afternoon out, but her day becomes something unexpected. As always, Naru has to rescue her. ONESHOT.


A/N Don't bother reading if you don't like an OC character. Though Mai is still the main character, honestly! Naru also makes his appearance.

Mai's got a good friend called Tomo and she was fun to write.

* * *

File one of one.

* * *

Naru watched Mai surruptitiously. She was daydreaming again. He could probably guess what was on her mind.

"Naru? Do you do anything for Halloween?"

Correct. His deductions never failed him.

"Most definately not," he said. "And as my employee, I forbid you from traipsing about the streets after dark in a ridiculous costume."

Mai turned her head and glared at him.

"You can't tell me what to do!"

Naru made a smirk stretch across his face.

"Yes, I can."

"Well, I'll be out of your hair at three and you won't have any influence on me, so there."

Silence stretched on for a while, until Mai made his tea. When she set it down on the table, he drew in a breath to speak.

"Originally, the tradition comes from England. Guy Fawkes Day. In 1605, the man tried to blow up Parliament. He was burnt at the stake, over a bonfire. Traditionally, an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burnt in the bonfire."

"Halloween stems of from druid practices. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. They would wear costumes made of animal fur. All together more foreboding."

"You know a lot about it."

"Of course."

When it came to three, Mai got ready to leave. She hesitated.

"Are you closing up?"

"No."

Mai nodded and Naru managed add another comment before she left.

"If you take part in any childish 'trick or treating', my assumptions on your brain will be correct."

The door slammed.

* * *

Mai didn't usually have time to indulge in such frivolities, but here she was, excited and rushed, due to meet her one of her friends in town.

She rocked forward in front of the mirror and tugged at the her costume. She was determined to enjoy her evening.

She slipped on her shoes by the door, called a quiet '_ittekimasu'_ into the silence before closing the door. She twisted her wrist and peered at her watch. _Shimatta! I'm late! _

* * *

Mai spotted Tomo on the street.

"_Ou_!" she called and staggered up, breathing heavily. She put her hands on Tomo's shoulders. "Sorry I'm late."

Tomo hid a laugh behind a hand and Mai let go of her. With bobbed dark hair and brown eyes, Tomo was a shy, quiet and bespectacled girl in which Mai had no idea how she had been befriended.

They often went to the small patisseries together when Mai, that is, had the time.

Mai twirled around. "What do you think?" she said indicating her costume.

Mai hadn't put a lot of thought into what to wear, the only reason she hadn't picked something more daring was the fault of her mind picturing Naru somehow crossing paths with her and making fun of her.

Mai cringed just thinking about it. _ 'I forbid you to traipse around the streets in the dark'_ he had said. It wasn't dark, so it didn't apply but still, she didn't want Naru to see.

She had picked something very familiar, and was quite pleased with it. She had chosen to wear a traditional _Hakama _traditionally worn by shrine maidens. Miko.

"Good Evening, Miko-sama!" said Tomo laughing and twirled around herself. Tomo wore a simple blue dress with a small cloak and a pointed hat on her head.

"Good Evening, Fantastical Majou!" said Mai. "Where are we going first?"

Tomo put a finger to her chin and looked skyward.

She uttered a small exclamation and grabbed Mai's hand, a smile spreading across her face.

"Come on Mai-san," she said and dragged Mai into a jog.

"Ehhh! Where are we going? _Matte!_"

* * *

They took two tram rides and between stops purchased _takoyaki. _Tomo still didn't reveal their destination until they stood right in front of it.

Mai gulped. She had been dragged to the outskirts of town and there it was. Standing in the pale autumn light, a large ramshackle house.

"A house?" she said. Tomo was looking at it with wide eyes.

It seemed a normal house. White-washed, the paint had cracked and the windows were dusty and cobwebby.

There was a small front garden that travelled round the right side of the house. It was elevated off the pavement, and Mai's head barely reached the top of the surrounding stone wall. It was the last house in the street.

"I heard a rumour that it's _haunted_," said Tomo, whispering the word 'haunted' and tweaking her glasses.

"Nobody lives in it?"

"I don't know." Tomo shrugged.

They both sidled along the pavement and peered at it's peeling side and garden.

"It doesn't look very overgrown," said Tomo, "Oh look, _Bonsai_ trees."

There was several of them, all small and nicely clipped, sitting on the ground.

"Look at that upright Juniper," Tomo muttered.

Mai left her studying them and walked a little further. Her ears were picking out the sound of water.

She found a brook trickling along with the pavement. It must travel past the house, she thought.

"Mai-chan!"

Mai came back to find Tomo in the garden looking in the front window, nose to nose with the window pane. Mai wasn't surprised. She had come across Tomo's powerful sense of curiosity before.

"Come up here."

Mai looked about feeling uneasy and let herself in by the gate which was guarded by what used to be a pair of _shisa _only the one on her right was missing leaving the one on the left with its mouth closed to keep in good spirits.

Shivering, for the house seemed more foreboding and stark the nearer she got to it, she looked through the dark window and straight into a horrendous face that popped out of the darkness, long teeth in a open mouth.

Mai let out a yell and stepped backwards, half aware that Tomo was chuckling.

"Did it scare you?"

"Sheesh! Did it scare _you_!" said Mai with her hand over her heart. It hadn't scared Tomo at all of course.

"Shhh, the ghosts might hear you."

Mai laughed quietly. Mai had discovered over the years, that Tomo had an immunity to shock and sudden surprises.

"It's a _hannya_," said Tomo who peered through the glass again. "Odd to have it in the window."

"Odd to have it at all," Mai whispered.

"A mask depicting a jealous woman turned demon. Did you know that the oldest _Hannya_ mask is dated at 1558," Tomo said whilst making the window squeak by wiping the grime off it with her sleeve.

"No," said Mai. She didn't pay too much attention to history usually. Tomo was a veritable encyclopaedia.

Tomo extended both index fingers and put them either side of her head sticking up like horns.

"_Okanmuri_."

They both said with mock frowns and laughed.

"My dad does that sometimes," said Tomo. "Whilst my mum's not looking."

They calmed down and trod warily to the front door which was covered with wisteria. It was just then that Mai wondered why she was doing this when she had enough experiences in haunted houses over the weeks.

I hope there's no one living here, she thought. _Especially when I've just trod on one of their azaleas. _

The door was in the same state of disrepair. When Mai accidentally leant on the doorbell they scampered round the corner of the house and only emerged again when no movement was heard.

Mai coloured on thinking what Naru would say about that. _Clumsy idiot_. Maybe.

"Well, we can definitely say it's not lived in," said Tomo tweaking her glasses. They walked past the door and wandered around the side of the house.

Mai shivered. A cold breeze cut threw her _Hakama_, but shiver that went down her spine wasn't because of the cold. There was something scary about this house.

The way was blocked by a bamboo-cane fence and a stone bench. Mai could hear the steady trickle of the brook. She stood on the bench and tried to look over the bamboo. It was a struggle and in the end she gave up.

"I can't…"

She was cut off when Tomo gave a gasp and Mai froze also as a loud rustling noise came from behind the bamboo. She jumped off the bench in alarm, her heart suddenly thumping.

Tomo grabbed her arm. "What is that?"

The sound faded away and Tomo loosened her grip on Mai's arm.

"Maybe it was a cat?" said Mai.

"Maybe…" said Tomo.

They beat a hasty retreat to the front door again.

"_Ano_, Mai-chan? The door wasn't open before, right?"

Mai's eyes flew to it and indeed, it was slightly ajar. She jumped when she saw spindly fingers grasp the edge of the door. She blinked and they were gone, leaving her unsure whether they had even _been_ fingers, but woody branches of wisteria.

She gulped and suddenly Tomo was creeping up to it like she was being drawn by a magnet.

"Wait Tomo," said Mai and followed her.

The door creaked open like a typical door in a haunted house and revealed a dark _Genkan_ and a grey hallway. It smelt unusually fresh, without any hint of fustiness, even though there was dust. Lots of dust.

"_Gomen kudasai_," called Tomo quietly. Her voice seemed remarkably hollow and small as the house swallowed it up and the silence stretched on.

They crept forward together, eyes strained ahead as sharp as they could be in the gloom.

Tomo spotted a light switch and flicked it on. Nothing happened. No electricity.

Mai felt a strange reluctance to go into the front room and see the _Haanya_. She shifted the _shoji _aside and they both peeked in.

There was a dusty _chadansu (tea chest) _opposite and a _zataku (low table) _in the centre.

Mai nervously looked up at the window. She frowned in confusion. Where was the mask? She looked on the floor around the window. It had vanished.

"Tomo….?" she started. "The _hannya's_ disappeared."

_"M-Mai?"_

Tomo tugged on her sleeve and cowered close to Mai's side looking upward, her voice a high tremble.

A creepy feeling went up Mai's spine. She looked up and stared. The mask was dangling above them, its metal, grimacing face turned downwards, it's socket-less eyes black in the gloom.

Mai's breath was lodged in her throat and a cold quiver went up her spine. She and Tomo clutched each other's clothing and continued to stare upward as if moving would make it blink, if blinking it would move.

Mai stepped backwards out of the threshold, pulled Tomo with her and slammed the _shoji _shut. They backed up to the wall breathing heavily. They stood for a while in the silence.

"It wasn't there before," said Tomo, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

"_Un_," said Mai.

"M-maybe this isn't the same room that we looked into."

"Maybe…"

They continued down the hallway both walking close together. They strained their ears over the sound of their footfall and their eyes, in the gloom, picked out something ahead.

Tomo quickened her steps over to it. It was a plain, rice paper _fusuma_. Mai felt as though a heavy, oppressive weight was at her back. She glanced backward over her shoulder and hopped from foot to foot. The hallway looked like a long thin tunnel. There was nowhere to run to, if something came out of the front room.

"You take the other side," Tomo whispered and grasped the _fusuma _handle. Mai took the other. They slid them apart until a small gap was made. The small '_shhhh_' and slight squeak it issued, seemed loud in the silence.

Peering through the gap, Mai could see an alcove to the right, a _zataku _and_ shoji _beyond that, but nothing else. She exchanged looks with Tomo.

"Shall we go in?"

"_Hai_."

Mai stepped inside the space onto _tatami_ matting and slid her side shut, shielding the pressure coming from behind.

"_Ara_." A mild exclamation came from Tomo who was face to face with a mask that was hanging on the wall.

Mai also stared at it. Tomo tweaked her glasses.

"_Usobuki_," she said. "A _Noh_ mask."

Tomo leant in closer and the _Usobuki's _pouted lips were just inches from her nose. It was a comical mask. The _Usobuki_ stared back at her, its eyes bulging and it seemed to be blowing with all its might through pursed lips, cheeks hollow, brow creased.

"Usually portrays plants, fish, insects…" Tomo said more to herself than to Mai. Besides, Mai had noticed there was other masks hanging on the walls. All different. All making her feel a little spooked.

She trod curiously over to a black-faced, white-bearded mask. His eyebrows and moustache stuck out in straight, white tufts, his red lips smiled and his whole lined face seemed to emit gladness.

"_Chichi-no-jo_."

Tomo's voice beside her made her jump.

"Why are there so many?" said Mai. The many faces were making her feel uneasy. She moved and their eyes followed her.

Tomo had already crossed the room and stood next to the _shoji_. "I think it leads outside," she said.

She tried the handle and to her surprise, it slid open.

"Mai?"

"Hm."

"Have you got a feeling that this is," she paused, "that it's too easy." She looked suspiciously at the gap in the shoji. "W-well, it's supposed to be a haunted house, I mean. Please don't think I'm strange, it's just…" she said this quickly and trailed off.

Mai knew exactly what she meant. She too looked around the silent room and felt wary. _I wonder what Naru would think. _Would he give her one of those derisive smiles.

"I don't think it's strange," said Mai. "Let's check out the garden."

Although both of them were wary, both remembered there was something out there cat or no.

* * *

They stepped out onto leaf-littered grass. The garden had an ethereal feel to it. The grass was mostly moss, soft and springy and every shrub seemed to be trim and still.

To the right was a small Maple tree it's leaves turning orange. A crooked dogwood stood beside it, surrounded by three mossy stones.

Mai instantly picked out the sound the babbling brook. Sounds as though it's coming from behind the stones, Mai thought.

She walked over to them and sure enough, below the rise, was the water travelling past the house.

She followed it with her eyes towards the street. She noticed the bamboo fence and the thick rhododendron bush before it and the long, red stick that was poking out from behind the bush.

Mai blinked. A red stick? Her mind twisted in confusion as it tried to work out what it was seeing. She stepped closer and the stick trembled. Now she looked closer, it was more of the end of a broom handle than a stick.

Mai shivered. Maybe she should have brought something to wear over her _Hakama_. She gazed at the red, broom handle and felt decidedly perturbed.

The bush rustled. Mai couldn't stop herself from jumping violently and letting out a shriek. It attracted Tomo and she stood beside Mai a second later.

"_Nani!? _What happened?"

"The bush."

They both stared at it. It took Mai a second to notice the red stick was gone.

"It could have just been the win_dAAAHHHH!_"

Tomo and Mai screamed and jumped backwards as the bush rattled so much that some of the dead leaves fell to the ground.

Where her ears deceiving her, or was there somebody laughing…

"Mai, I don't think it's a cat," squeeked Tomo.

A quiet, tinny sort of cackle.

"Did you hear that?"

All of a sudden, a blast of wind caught them in the face and whipped the trees and bushes into a frenzy. The fallen rhododendron leaves swirled past.

Through her narrowed eyes, Mai spotted the red stick once again protruding from the bush.

"Look!" she shouted.

The more she stared at it, the more it was starting to look like something she had seen before.

Tomo's hand gripped her arm.

"Mai, I know this is going to sound strange but," she paused for a moment, "does that, I mean, does it look like a nose to you? Doesn't it remind you of a long, red nose?"

A chilling feeling crept up her back and the long stick suddenly looked like the thing she had seen before, but only in books.

"It's a _Tengu_."

They stood frozen, Mai with horror zipping up and down her, making heart thud and throb in her neck.

A quiet, tinny sort of cackle and the red nose moved. It started to extend from the bush and a head came into view.

Do you know the feeling when, your eyes see but your mind doesn't comprehend what you are seeing. Your vision sort of twists, twists this way and that, and tries to make an identifiable shape out of the anomaly.

Mai stood like this, gaping. Suddenly, as if a gun had gone off, she and Tomo leapt into motion, sprinting for the _shoji _back into the house.

She glimpsed the terrible, red creature shooting forward before she slammed the _shoji_ closed with a scream. Mai leant on the opposite wall, panting, the sound of flapping wings still in her ears.

The house had gotten gloomier as afternoon darkened. Tomo breathed heavily beside her, her glasses slightly askew.

"A _Tengu," _she gasped_. "A Tengu," _she said again and started rattling off information without realizing it, like a machine on auto-pilot.

Mai listened with only half an ear. She was beginning to notice something disturbing. All the masks in the room, all of them, where looking at her.

_Chichi-no-jo_, his closed eyes were exuding happiness in her direction. _Usobuki's _protruding crossed-eyes were looking sideways at her.

Tomo's jabbering had trailed off.

"They're all looking at us," she said in quiet disbelief.

One red, _Noh_ mask, Mai noticed, hadn't turned his eyes to them, but just as she had looked at it, the stark white eyeballs that where wide with astonishment, jumped onto hers.

Mai started and screamed. She scrambled with Tomo past the _fusuma _and dashed back to the front door.

Only, there was something waiting for them there.

"Ww_AAAAHHHH!!" _Tomo screamed and back peddled, nearly falling on her rear. The _Hannya_ was hanging on the door.

Mai jumped forward and snatched the door handle. The door wouldn't open. She rattled it frantically. The mask seemed to laugh in her face. She let go and backed away.

They couldn't get out.

There was a _Tengu_ at the back of the house and a mask that moved of it's own will and no escape.

They knelt panting at the foot of the staircase in the hallway.

"I don't want to go up there," said Tomo. Mai didn't either. It was very dark and the landing scared her. What was lurking up there? Something might appear from around the corner, something was skulking the gloom.

Mai fumbled in her pocket for her old mobile.

Would Naru be still at the office? She punched in the first number. _I wonder what he might say. Trust Mai to get into this kind of situation. Probably. _She shook her head. _Just dial._

Her ear caught a quiet pattering noise coming from somewhere. Her thumb froze on the number pad.

'_Kararin, kororin, kankororin'_

What was that? Mai strained her ears trying to pick out the quiet sound. _Patter, patter, patter. _The noise became steadily louder and so did her own heartbeat.

Mai could hear words now. "Kararin, kororin, kankororin."

Something came running down the hallway. It looked like a…sandal? Only, it had arms and legs and a single bulging eye set in it's sole.

"Kararin, kororin, kankororin!" it cried shrilly and scampered towards them.

Mai and Tomo screamed at the top of their lungs and scrambled up the stairs with the cries of the _zori_ sandal following them.

The landing split to the right and left. Mai scooted to the left and Tomo to the right, with no time to change direction for the 'sandal' was already at the top of the stairs. Every man for himself.

Mai pounded down the hallway, swerved into a bedroom and slammed the door shut. She pressed her cheek to the wood and listened. Nothing. Her heart thumped loudly and the blood pounded in her head.

It was agonizing. The darkness of the room pressed around her and Mai stubbornly refused to look at what was behind her. She strained even more to hear anything.

She opened the door a tad. Still, nothing. Tomo. She stepped out into the hall.

"Tomo," she whispered, eyes darting ahead.

She crept back to the staircase and continued right. She didn't attempt to open any closed doors. There! A door, slightly ajar.

She pushed it open slowly, expecting the sandal to pop out and her heartbeat escalated. "_T-Tomo_?"

"_Here_."

She heard a very small voice and saw Tomo at the opposite side of the room standing on top of a bed. The room was very gloomy and she was just a grey figure.

"Where is it?" she whispered.

Tomo, standing like a cat surrounded by water, jabbed her finger downward.

"_It's under the bed._"

Mai looked down at the bed as if it was a foreign object and got that funny feeling you get when you know that something is concealed beneath or behind.

She trod carefully around it, keeping her eyes on the rippled ends of the unusually dust free sheets.

"_What are you doing_?"

Truth was, Mai didn't know what she was doing. Should she scare it out from underneath the bed? Was the sandal dangerous?

"Just run for it," she whispered. Could the sandal understand what she was saying? "When I count to three we'll escape and shut the door on it."

Tomo nodded.

"_Ichi_ - _ni _- _saAAAAHHH_!"

The sandal had burst from beneath the bed and it ran straight at Mai's feet crying 'kararin, kororin, kankororin!'

Mai leapt over it clumsily and staggered around the bed, the sound of pattering feet following her.

"_Go!_" she yelled at Tomo who squealed and jumped off the bed. She stood at the doorway ready to slam it shut.

Mai clambered over the bed, the sandal gaining on her and she flung herself out of the bedroom before Tomo shut the door. BAM!

Tomo slid down to the floor. Her hat was drooping lopsidedly and it was a wonder that it hadn't fallen of her head yet.

Mai shakily started punching numbers on her phone. Her thumb seemed twice as clumsy and kept on pressing six when she wanted nine.

_Concentrate! _Then she realized she could use the pre-set. _Idiot! _

She waited, the mobile pressed to her ear. _Onegai. _Please be there, she thought. _He's got to be, workaholic narcissist that he is. _

"Shibuya Physic Research," said a monotone voice.

"Lin!"

"Mai?"

"I need to speak to Naru," she said hastily. There was a short pause. Mai could see him contemplating what to do, then click. She was through to Naru's office.

"N-naru?" she said.

"Mai?" his voice sounded a little surprised. "What do you want."

Mai paused. How should she phrase it? Hoping he wouldn't ridicule her for getting into this fix, she said, "Listen, Naru, we're stuck inside a haunted house," she paused.

The other end was silent. "There's some funny stuff going on and there's a… _tengu_… in the garden." Silence.

"Honestly Naru. It's the truth."

Tomo put her head near the mobile. "Hello, Imamiya Tomo speaking, Mai-chan's friend. I vouch for her Naru-san. There's even a _bakejori_ running around."

Mai wasn't sure Tomo's word would be any good to Naru. She listened for a reply at the other end.

"We can't get out," she said for good measure.

Finally, there was a sigh. "Alright," he said stonily. "Where are you?"

Mai handed the mobile to Tomo. _I hope he isn't too angry. _She thought of him storming down to get them and shuddered.

Mai slipped the mobile away and fumbled around for the cool metallic object that usually came with her wherever she went.

To her alarm, she couldn't find it. It wasn't in her pocket. She looked around the hallway. Could she have dropped it somewhere?

"What's wrong?" asked Tomo.

Mai started down the hallway, searching. "I've lost my lucky key!" she said.

* * *

Mai crept down stairs and peered down at the landing. Her eyes skimming the floor for any metallic glint in the gloom.

"I hope you didn't drop it in the room with the masks," said Tomo. Mai hoped so to. Tomo looked fearfully down the hall to the front door, and clutched Mai's arm.

"It's gone!"

"Again?"

The _Hannya _was no longer hung upon the door.

"_Ano_, all this is very fascinating, but I don't think I can take much more."

"We'll definitely get out of here," Mai said. "_Zettai ni_."

Mai knelt down and scanned the floor.

"Mai."

"Hm."

"You know, shoes come in pairs.

"Yeah." Mai wasn't quite sure what Tomo was getting at.

"Well, there's the other one."

Mai looked up. The other one what?

"Kararin, kororin, kankororin!"

Past the _fusuma_ and running around the _zataku_ was a second _bakejori._

"No way!"

In it's small hands something glinted.

"My key! It's got my key!"

Mai dashed forward. _I don't care if it's a sandal. It shouldn't be talking or running but it's still just a sandal.  
_

The thing looked at her with its one eye, stuck out it's tongue and ran out of sight chanting.

"_Oi_, give that back!"

"Mai!"

Tomo called after her as she darted through the _fusuma_.

"Stay there. Watch out for Naru!"

At first, she couldn't see where it had gone. The room was empty. She trod around the _zataku_, looked under it and all the while she could feel the eyes of the masks following her.

It wasn't here. She circled the table again then she spotted it. The door that led to the garden was open a crack.

Dread filled her. It had escaped into the garden. Mai groaned. _Why? _She pressed an eye to the gap.

There! The sandal was scampering under the Dogwood by the stones. No red Tengu was to be seen.

_Here goes nothing! _Mai nudged the door further open, sprang out and made a mad dash to the sandal.

"Kararin, kororin, kankororin!"

It disappeared behind the stones. No! Mai skidded to a stop, leant over them and looking left and right, couldn't see the filching _Bakejori _anywhere.

Mai scrambled over the stones breathing hard. Her mind was seeing red noses everywhere.

Where on earth had it gone? She listened hard for it's chant but heard nothing, not even any bird call.

She walked carefully along the brook to the left. Actually, there was a noise in the air but it was very faint. A sort of grinding noise, like pebbles being sieved but not as sharp sounding, softer.

Mai strained to hear and also picked out softly sung words floating with it.

"_Azuki togo ka, hito totte kuo ka? shoki shoki." _

Mai frowned and walked further. She couldn't quite hear the words clearly.

"_Azuki togo ka,…"_

"Will I grind my Azuki beans," Mai mumbled.

"…_hito totte kuo ka?"_

"…or will I get a person to eat?"

Mai stepped on a dead leaf and it crunched.

The singing stopped abruptly. Something moved quickly at the corner of her eye and startled her.

She stepped on the edge of her _Hakama_. Letting out a cry of surprise, she fell backward into the brook with a splash.

The water was freezing. She sat up, completely drenched. She lifted her sopping sleeves and sighed. What a day this was turning out to be. _A quiet Halloween doesn't exist maybe. _

A wink in the grass where the 'something' had moved but was now ostensibly gone, caught her eye.

_My key! _She reached out joyfully and took it from the wet grass. She smiled. She was so ingrossed that she failed to notice the dark object that was skimming through the water towards her.

It rose out of the water, a scaly green monster. Mai knew what it was without Tomo telling her. Her mother's warnings from all so long ago rang in her ears.

It was a _Kappa_. A child-eating probably Mai-eating _Kappa_.

She screamed.

"_Ahhhhh!_"

"Mai!"

A hand grabbed hold of her arm and wrenched her onto her feet. _Naru! _

"Idiot, move!"

Even his rudeness didn't stop the flood of relief and affection that came upon her. She tripped onto the bank and was dragged up the slope into the garden.

"Naru."

She was dropped onto the grass. Water pooled around her. She unconsciously clutched her lucky key to her chest.

"I said, are you all right?"

"Huh." Mai looked up straight into his eyes. "Y-yeah," she stuttered. "Where's Tomo?"

"Mai!"

Tomo appeared beside her and engulfed her in a hug. "Are you OK. You screamed and…"

"I'm OK," Mai rushed to say. She glanced about her. The _Kappa _was gone. The _tengu _was nowhere to be seen. It felt as if none of it had happened. Maybe the creatures hadn't really been there in the first place.

"Did you find your key?"

"Hai."

She stood up and realized her _Hakama_ was plastered to her skin. She glanced at Naru and coloured.

"I see you are wearing a costume," said Naru.

"So what. It's not after dark is it! Nor am I traipsing in the streets."

"You take yourself as a Miko?"

Mai peeled the fabric away from her skin. "Yes. I liked the way Ayako-san wears them."

She ducked her head in embarrasment and dared him to say something sarky. He didn't, to her surprise.

"How did you get in?" she asked.

"The door wasn't locked," he said bluntly.

"What!" said Tomo and Mai at the same time. "How?"

"Naru-san.." said Tomo.

"Shibuya," he interrupted.

"Shibuya-san, I can't explain it. First there was a _Hannya _mask that moved with it's own will. There was a _Tengu_," her voice lowered to a hush as she said this, "_a Tengu _in the garden and we were chased around the house by a _Bakejori_."

She finished slightly breathlessly, her eyes wide behind her spectacles. Naru glanced at Mai and seemed to say with a look 'how did you find such an eccentric friend?'

"Mai, I trust you haven't been sharing ghost stories with Imamiya-san."

"Oh yes," said Tomo giving an answer for herself, "I love ghost stories. I'm very interested in Japanese mythology."

Naru gave both of them a condescending look. "The door wasn't locked. I noticed the two Shisa at the gate. One was broken. The other was intact and had it's mouth closed. The _Shisa was _somehow keeping all of the spirits inside the house or around it. That _Shisa _is now incapable of doing so anymore."

Mai sighed in relief. She stowed her lucky key away and looked up, a 'thank you' on her lips. Naru was smirking. Her smile drooped.

"What are you smirking at?" she said hotly.

"I thought you always want a thank you, yet you don't say it yourself. I expected less hypocrisy from you Mai," he said in a condescending tone.

Mai clenched her fist. _Why you…_

"I _was_ _going _to say it, but now I don't want to, seeing you only saved me because, who will be there to make you your tea whenever you say, or do all the menial tasks."

Mai harrumphed. Tomo looked on slightly confused but amused. Naru's face didn't change.

"But, you know I'll say it anyway so…thank you."

Mai clutched her lucky key tighter.

"You're welcome."

Mai looked up in complete surprise. Naru had a small smile on his face and Mai looked at it in amazement.

"Who would do all those things except you Mai."

That could mean two things but, the way Naru was smiling, Mai felt affection swell up for him. She truly did love him, narcissist that he was. But then he said this.

"Who would do _everything_ that I told them to do."

"You…!"

"_Ara_," said Tomo.

**The End.**

* * *

There we go. A revised and spruced up edition.

I wrote my butt off and I really need a break. It was quite a challenge to write but I'm glad I finished it!

Zettai ni - definately.

**Azukiarai** - a spirit that makes the sound of Azuki beans being washed.

**Tengu** - the infamous bird-man demon of the mountains.

The 'sandal' - **Bakejori** - a straw zori sandal which has been transformed into a tsukumogami, a yokai (spirit creature) which was once an ordinary household item. It runs through the house and chants "_kararin, kororin, kankororin!_"

**Shisa (Shishi)- **the paired lion-dogs that guard the entrances of temples. Also at the entrance of houses.

**Okanmuri** - a gesture. When a married man says, 'okanmuri' there is a good chance his wife is angry.

**Genkan **- A Japanese entryway. A genkan is for the removal of shoes before entering the main part of the house or building.

Masks in Japan are usually used in plays. It's quite fascinating.

I really hope you enjoyed reading it!


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